Liquid Ice
by Liz492
Summary: Ichigo's dead! What will the now 18 year old Karin, who was forced to take her brother's place, do? Especially when confronted with a sexy, sought after Toshiro who takes an interest in her that exceeds way beyond just being her sensei/senpai. HitsuKari
1. Chapter 1

**Pairing: Karin x Hitsugaya**

**Time Set: 5 years after Xcution. The 100 years war didn't happen.**

**Summary: Ichigo's dead! The now 17 year old Karin is forced to take his role.**

Prologue

When they first heard, the Kurosaki family just huddled together, bowing their heads as if suddenly burdened with a great weight. Isshin's arms were not long enough to pull his daughters into a hug like he did when their mother died. This time, Isshin knew, his girl's would have to fight alone. This time their brother would not be there to shield them. And no matter how he tried, their father would not be able to be there the whole time. None of them cried, whether it was just because of the shock that the invincible Ichigo was dead, or whether they just couldn't find the tears, none of them understood. Even at his funeral, they didn't cry.

It was one of the biggest funerals in both Karakura's and Seireitei's history, all captains and vice captains attended; along with most of Ichigo's school. It was so large they had to hold the entire service outside, and afterwards there was a separate ceremony in Soul Society, following shinigami protocol.

After both of these ceremonies, Ichigo's closest friends and family gathered at Ryuken Ishida's house, much to the Quincies' disgust, for the reception. This is where our story begins, a story fraught with danger, love, hatred, jealousy and betrayal.

Chapter 1

The bread was tasteless, the meat was tasteless, even the chocolate mud-cake was tasteless. In light of everything that happened, Karin didn't think that anything would be as flavoursome or colourful again. Her brother died, and it was that brother that brought the light to their household. Without him everything was grey, there weren't even any definitive blacks nor whites. Since his death even the darkest shadows faded to a grey.

A soft hand on her shoulder made Karin jump and spin, ready to defend herself. Rather than some asshole looking for a fight she found one of her closest shinigami friends. Not that he would admit it.

"Toshiro."

"Kurosaki." Hitsugaya's voice rubbed against her bare skin like a cold breeze, lifting up goose-bumps as it travelled over her body. "I'd like to have a word." Without saying anything else he turned and walked out of the packed room. Karin blinked once before following, if he was going to offer condolences, then why would he be taking her outside; but then again if this was business then this would have to be the worst place to bring it up.

Stuck in her musings Karin almost runs into Toshiro's broad back when he abruptly stops. "He's still hanging around."

Even without the 10th squad captain needing to explain the young woman understood perfectly, really she knew it all along. Her brother could never truly die. "Where is he?"

"Hueco Mundo..." The two words were spoken so bleakly, with absolute dread and resignation. "We've looked for reports of his soul in soul society and there have been none. We also know that he is not still in this world, so the only place left is Hueco Mundo."

Though Karin was relatively new to the world of the shinigami, she understood what Hueco Mundo was, and she understood the ramifications of being there. Her soaring hope was instantly shot down and this time she truly felt the need to cry, a slight keening noise escaped from the back of her throat. Her brother would end up living as the very thing he hunted, and he hated, it hurt her more than the news of his actual death had.

"I had to tell you today, because it won't be long before he comes after you. He's going to be strong and we need to get you ready." Toshiro didn't turn, he didn't look at her, obviously feeling uncomfortable.

"Wait... what? Get me ready?" Consternation spread across her slender features, showing her confusion.

Toshiro sighed, "Soul Society is currently overrun with jobs, we mightn't be able to make it to you in time to save you." With great effort he turned to face her, regret obvious. "I don't like it, but you're going to become a Substitute Shinigami."

**Sorry it's so short guys. I just thought that was a good place to end it. Don't worry, the next chapter will be a lot longer.**

**I'd like to add that none of these characters are my own. The whole of Bleach belongs to none other than the amazing Kubo Tite and this was just for fun.**

**Please Rate and Review. **


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_« Meet me at Kisuke's at three tomorrow afternoon. We'll explain more then." _

A growl of frustration pushed its way from Karin's throat. "Asshole!" She shouted, there was something about Hitsugaya that always got on her nerves. He always sent her spinning off kilter. Lately especially, he'd grown a lot in the past few months, shooting up to be as tall if not taller than Ichigo was before he died.

At thought the breath was shoved from her, Ichi-nii was a hollow. A complete, full, unchangeable hollow, anger at the sneaky, weak monster that had killed her brother surged through her. After all of the fights he had gone through, after all the battles he had won, it was one cowardly hollow that snuck up behind him and slit his throat. It didn't take long for him to die, with his blood pouring over the ground. The worst thing was, the person that found him was his own girlfriend of two years. Rukia Kuchiki.

"Karin! Dinner!" Yuzu called from downstairs, the welcoming smell of her cooking wafting up with it.

With a groan Karin pushed herself up out of bed, "Yeah I'm co-..." The ebony haired girl couldn't even finish her sentence before an extremely loud crashing sound echoed from downstairs sending the house rocking from side to side. Alarm pulsed and she ran from her room, leaping down the stairs in one jump to stop in her tracks. A faint memory surfaced, agony screaming through her as she was squeezed and thrown away by a hollow. The sight Ichigo would have been confronted with back then was copied almost perfectly here. One of those monsters, at least twice the size of any normal hollow, towered above Karin, a huge hole blown in the side of the house. In the monster's gigantic hand you could just see a small head of blonde hair, horror pounded through the young woman.

"Yuzu!" Her scream made the hollow turn its enormous head towards her. Orange hair sprouted wildly from behind its mask, a mask that framed what would have been a normal human face, with two red lines arrowing down over the two black holes that were the hollow's eyes. A pair of horns stood up proud from the sides of the mask.

Karin growled deep in her throat, even without ever seeing Ichigo's masked form, there was something in her that acknowledged this as her brother. Her heart ripped in two to see him like this, to have lost all form of coherence, to have completely lost his mind. To be hurting his _own sister!_ An unfathomable rage consumed her and she attempted to rush forward, to save her sister, and to help her brother, but her legs wouldn't move. Not even looking down to see why she was rooted to the same spot she strived to reach her family, she couldn't budge. Her eyes were locked onto Yuzu's blonde head as it laid there motionless, her anger rising by the second. Ichigo took one step after another closer to her, his huge feet making dents in the asphalt. Tugging harder at the invisible bonds that held her in place Karin began to feel something shift and tear within her. Agony arched through her whole body, but she kept pushing, she absolutely _had_ to save her family, her mind focused on that single point. Then, she's plunging forward headfirst, stumbling a little but she rights herself quickly, shocked at the sudden movement.

Allowing herself a brief glance down she sees herself cloaked in a black shihakusho, the exact same as all shinigami's. A sudden weight is laden in her right hand making her look down sharply, in her hand there was now a long katana, it was long and slender, almost as long as her body, and trailing behind it on a chain was a medium sized golden mace. Its hilt was dark red and along its length, the metal was tinted with that same colour. Her breath was taken away by its beauty, she was unable to take her eyes off of it and the hollow in front of her took advantage of that, lunging towards her.

Just in time Karin jumped out of the way, her eyes flaring wide at the huge load of information pouring into her from her zanpakutou. It told her how to wield the sword, exactly where to strike at the body to create the most damage and what to do next.

The young woman felt her body leap forward slicing at the chest of her brother. Her sword bit deep into flesh and bone, creating a surprisingly small amount of resistance. A roar exploded from the monster and it threw Yuzu to the side, hard. Karin cried out in dismay, but just as her twin was about to hit the telephone pole a dark shadow flitted across and caught her, dropping down to land a little bit away.

"Toshiro!" The white haired boy looked up at Karin in shock as she called to him.

Hitsugaya's turquoise eyes flashed in the night, "Looks like you didn't need our help in the end."

"I wouldn't have needed it in the first place." She glares. "You're somewhat late." Snapping to hide her relief, she gestured back at the house. "I thought you were a captain."

The young man strode forward after lying Yuzu on the ground gently, eyes narrowing as he drew closer to her. "If it was someone else, they wouldn't have even been able to come."

"Bull, you're just covering your ass." Karin sneers, then another roar explodes from her brother as he rushes towards them.

"Kurosaki... would you like me to finish this?" Toshiro was suddenly serious, looking Karin intently, not having noticed her zanpakutou that looked almost exactly like his.

With a curt shake of her head the raven haired girl refuses his offer, then she spins, jumping as she does so and slams the hilt of her sword straight into the middle of her brother's mask and it shatters. For a moment Karin is taken aback, it looked like Ichigo again, his face was scrunched up as if in agony, guilt slams through her. She'd just seriously hurt her brother, but then his eyes snap open to reveal darkly intelligent eyes with yellow pupils. Pure evil shone out of those black eyes, nothing of her brother remained. So, shaking her head the girl brought her sword upwards, ready to lunge and cut the monster in half, but before she could, Ichigo let out a piercing scream and disappeared into a blackness.

Karin stared at the space he had been for a moment before collapsing , pitching forward to fall face first onto the asphalt. Or at least she would've if a pair of strong arms hadn't caught her and steadied her. It only took one look upwards into those piercing, gorgeous, solemn eyes to send her bawling. Both emotionally and physically drained she let herself sink into Toshiro's embrace, her katana clattering to the ground as she sobbed into his chest./


End file.
